The National Labor Relations Board has issued its
1972 annual report, covering the period July 1, 1971 through June 30,
1972. According to the report NLRB's case load exceeded
40,000 annually for the first time. In fiscal 1972, 41,039 cases were
reported.

The Board conducted 8,472 collective bargaining
elections in which more than 1/2 million employees voted. In 55% (4,653)
of these elections employees voted for union representation. Through
these victories unions were certified as bargaining agents for 286,365 -
the Comparable figure for fiscal 1971 was 264,747). Unfair labor practice charges continue to run about
two-to-one over representation petitions with the unfair labor practice
cases showing a 13% increase over the preceding year.

Charges against employers rose 15% over the previous
year while those against employers dealt with illegal discharge or other
discriminatory practices against employees because of their pro-union
activity. This form of employer unfair labor practice--firing union
proponents--continues to be the most frequently used violation of the
law. The reason for its popularity among employers is
obvious. The organizing campaign is dealt a serious blow when an
employee identified as a strong union supporter is fired. Even though he
may ultimately be compensated or reinstated the effect of the illegal
action has been felt, to the detriment of all other employees in the
unit.

Refusal to bargain charges represented the second
highest type of violation alleged against employers--slightly more than
1/3. While the Board's current report does not differentiate, several
years ago it noted a sharp increase in refusal to bargain cases in
"first contract negotiations." It is likely that such cases
continue to be a substantial percentage of the total refusal to bargain
category and thus reflect continuation into the bargaining field of
employer anti-union activity in the organizing phase. Through NLRB regional directors, the NLRB General
Counsel issued 2,709 complaints in 1972, a 7% increase. Close to 78% of
these complaints were issued against employers and slightly more than
22% against unions. This is approximately the same ratio as existed the
previous year.

The reduction in the number of employees voting in
elections suggests a reduction in the size of the units they comprise.
That reduction is reflected in the reduction in the number of people in
the units won. It also has some influence in the victory percentage
performance because as we have been noting for some time, union
performance in smaller units is better than that in larger. We have
noted that in recent years the average size of units won NLRB collective
bargaining elections was 68 while the average size of units lost was 78.

FIELD OPERATIONS

Participation in large-scale organizing program:

In the last six months the department has been requested to
assist in major organizing campaigns involving large numbers of public
employees. One such campaign was among New York State employees, the
other among New Jersey State employees. In response to each request the department assembled
a special task force of field representatives from different regions
sending them into the designated localities where critical organizing
skilled manpower needs had been identified by the union conducting the
effort.

In each case the AFL-CIO field staff meshed very well
with the Union's staff representatives. In both cases overall
responsibility for the AFL-CIO task force was assigned to the AFL-CIO
regional director in whose region the particular state was located. A total of 18 field representatives from seven
regions participated in these campaigns. These developments are a
continuation of the Department's program of meeting extraordinary
organizing problems. Similar task forces have been brought together for
campaigns in the past at a particular target plant or a particular
industry.

Cooperative Campaigns:

AFL-CIO continues to conduct cooperative organizing
campaigns of varying descriptions and forms. Still continuing is the oldest of such campaigns --
the Los Angeles-Orange County Organizing campaign. Now 10 years old
[1963-1973], this highly successful operation has encouraged smaller
scale "spin-off" programs, roughly comparable, in San
Bernardino and in San Diego. The Iowa program continues with its unique
involvement of over a dozen central labor unions as well as
international unions. That program has been underway for some 8 years
[1965-1973].

The Mississippi Organizing program continues to be
recognized for its unpublicized success as a cooperative organizing
effort. International unions participating in the 6 year old program
have maintained a brisk organizing scale and have introduced trade
unions into areas of the state that hitherto had been without collective
bargaining input. With the spread of organizing interest resulting from
the organizing efforts and successes attendant upon the establishment if
this Mississippi-wide program, plans are now underway for the creation
of a sub-area of concentration in the area of Tupelo and vicinity.

Because of the good experience with the Mississippi
program, Region VII has now initiated a preliminary cooperative program
in the New Orleans area. Representatives of AFL-CIO unions have been
attending meetings chaired by AFL-CIO staff to determine the form and
character of the program, and to begin preliminary survey and target and
target-clearance operations. The Indianapolis area program, also 1/2 dozen years
old [1967-1973] recently featured its annual "kick off"
meeting for the current year. The cooperative attitude among the
participating unions generated by that program persists in a very
evident manner. A somewhat similar limited area program has been in
effect in Santa Clara County, California for several years.

Also still in operation, and actively so, are the
AFL-CIO sponsored building trades cooperative efforts in Region XV
(Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska). The older of the programs there, the Ozark
Cooperative campaign, has an uninterrupted history of organizing success
in that developing area. The Tampa-Orlando organizing program now nearing its
projected two year life span is currently undergoing examination to
determine whether it should be continued beyond its originally projected
duration and whether its emphasis should be shifted to Orlando, which
has proven to be the more active focal point of the organizing effort of
many of the unions participating in the program.

For several years, a loosely structured cooperative
program among unions interested in GE has been existence. It features
target clearing, exchange of organizing information and literature and
entails utilization of department staff in mediation efforts when
organizing conflicts of interest develop. As presently constituted, the
program is not adequate to meet the problems presented to all
participating unions in organizing among GE employees. GE is a
formidable opponent, resourceful and determined. The Company follows a
unified approach that is very difficult to encounter on a piece-meal
basis. A meeting is being scheduled probably in late March in which this
entire operation will be reviewed in an effort to improve it or supplant
it with a more effective mechanism.

One of the considerations that must betaken into
account when evaluating cooperative programs is the importance of full
time staff availability. Regardless of the number of unions participating, experience
shows a direct relationship between the level of organizing activity and
the number of full-time staff responsible to the coordinator of the
program in a direct staff-line basis. The number of international union representatives
assigned to organizing within the scope of the cooperative program is
another key factor.

Of the two categories of staff participants, that
fully directed by a coordinator plays the more crucial role because its
members provide a mobility and versatility international union staff
representatives are not always able to offer. When the AFL-CIO coordinator has not a permanent
staff large enough to maintain the degree of coordination required, it
should be possible for him to employ, train, and assign local unionists,
representatives of the working population of the area, with organizing
program funds provided by the participating unions. Of the AFL-CIO cooperative organizing programs, only
two have been financially equipped to have a staff of that character,
the L.A.-O.C. program in its first yew years, and the Baltimore-D.C.
program.

It is interesting to note that while, in recent
years, the number of unions participating in the program has remained
relatively stable, the level of organizing activity has diminished as
the number of staff directly responsible to the coordinator has been
reduced. And it is significant to note that while the Baltimore-D.C.
effort had a short, fixed life span, its influence and impact was felt
long after its expiration as a separate project not only by virtue of
the cooperative spirit it helped generate but also because a number of
staff the program had employed became full time representatives of
unions that had participated in the program.

SUPPORT PROGRAMS

The Department has curtailed its program of
conducting organizing training sessions for international union staffs
because of the drop in size of the headquarters staff. To the extent
possible, we have continued to participate in such programs, however,
have recently concluded several, and have several additional scheduled
for later in the year.

Recognizing the inability of headquarters personnel
to participate at the former level of involvement, we have endeavored to
"decentralize" this phase of our program. The result has been
that in a number of locations around the country, AFL-CIO field staff
personnel have conducted such training programs. These staff members for
the most part have been trained in the performance of such tasks during
their participation in the field intern program the Department pursues.

TRAINING PROGRAMS

A major portion of the training programs our staff
conducts for international union staff deals with developing more
effective in-plant committees. It is common knowledge that the typical
union organizer's performance record with smaller groups is better than
with larger. Personal observations in this regard are supported by
objective statistics such as the NLRB figures concerning election
results by unit sizes.

The reason "the bigger they come the harder we
fall" is that an effective union organizer has great skill in
effecting rapport with individuals and small groups because he is
dealing virtually on a one-to-one basis. In those circumstances he has
few superiors in the whole range of practitioners of the persuasive
arts.

It is when the group reaches a size that precludes
his maintaining a personal liaison with a majority of the unit that the
organizer's efforts in terms of success begin to decline. Too often he is unable to transfer to the in-plant
union support group a sufficient degree of organizing skills to overcome
the opposition coming from management. Not as a leader, therefore, but as an educator the
organizer too often lacks the necessary qualifications. This is the area
of skill in which organizers have to be trained today more than at any
other time. We have been attempting to work with AFL-CIO unions
in developing ways and means of imparting that kind of knowledge to
organizers. It is for that reason we have placed such emphasis in recent
years on the training programs our staff has been conducting.

When confronted with a relatively larger unit size
some unions, recognizing the problem outlined immediately above, have
thought of meeting it in terms of increasing the number of staff
assigned to a campaign thus maintaining the theory of the workable ratio
between the number of employees and the number of staff. This, however,
creates an organizing problem of another dimension and that is staff
direction.

Directing organizing staff requires skills and
personal traits and knowledge that differ from those of organizing per
se. Not every successful organizer can be a successful coordinator of
staff. The development of coordinating skills has also
occupied our attention in these training programs and has become an
increasingly important concern as the move toward cooperative and/or
coordinating organizing wins greater acceptance among unions. As cooperative organizing increases in use the role
of the AFL-CIO field staff as coordinators assumes greater importance.

This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London

On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.—WashingtonPost